aléser

French

Alternative forms

• alléser (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French alaisier (“enlarge, extend”), derived from vulgar Latin allatiare (“enlarge”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.le.ze/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: alésai, alésé, alésée, alésées, alésés, alésez, alézé, alézée, alézées, alézés, allésai, allésé, allésée, allésées, alléser, allésés, allésez

Verb

aléser

1. (transitive) to ream (a hole; to use a reamer or boring machine to drill or enlarge a hole or cavity)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written aléser-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written alèser-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of aléser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	aléser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	alésant /a.le.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		alésé /a.le.ze/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	alèse /a.lɛz/	alèses /a.lɛz/	alèse /a.lɛz/	alésons /a.le.zɔ̃/	alésez /a.le.ze/	alèsent /a.lɛz/
	imperfect	alésais /a.le.zɛ/	alésais /a.le.zɛ/	alésait /a.le.zɛ/	alésions /a.le.zjɔ̃/	alésiez /a.le.zje/	alésaient /a.le.zɛ/
	past historic2	alésai /a.le.ze/	alésas /a.le.za/	alésa /a.le.za/	alésâmes /a.le.zam/	alésâtes /a.le.zat/	alésèrent /a.le.zɛʁ/
	future	alèserai or aléserai /a.lɛz.ʁe/	alèseras or aléseras /a.lɛz.ʁa/	alèsera or alésera /a.lɛz.ʁa/	alèserons or aléserons /a.lɛz.ʁɔ̃/	alèserez or aléserez /a.lɛz.ʁe/	alèseront or aléseront /a.lɛz.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	alèserais or aléserais /a.lɛz.ʁɛ/	alèserais or aléserais /a.lɛz.ʁɛ/	alèserait or aléserait /a.lɛz.ʁɛ/	alèserions or aléserions /a.lɛ.zə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.le.zə.ʁjɔ̃/	alèseriez or aléseriez /a.lɛ.zə.ʁje/ or /a.le.zə.ʁje/	alèseraient or aléseraient /a.lɛz.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	alèse /a.lɛz/	alèses /a.lɛz/	alèse /a.lɛz/	alésions /a.le.zjɔ̃/	alésiez /a.le.zje/	alèsent /a.lɛz/
	imperfect2	alésasse /a.le.zas/	alésasses /a.le.zas/	alésât /a.le.za/	alésassions /a.le.za.sjɔ̃/	alésassiez /a.le.za.sje/	alésassent /a.le.zas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	alèse /a.lɛz/	—	alésons /a.le.zɔ̃/	alésez /a.le.ze/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• alésage
• aléseur
• aléseuse
• alésoir

Further reading

• “aléser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.